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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-SJC-2019-11-20 MN-SJC-2019-11-20.doc 1 SJC MEETING November 20, 2019 SJC Members Staff Cynthia Brock, Chair Steve Thayer Laura Lewis CJ Kilgore Supervisor Jason Liefer Scott Gibson Supervisor Bill Goodman Jose Lozano Tee-Ann Hunter Dave Warden Guests Scott Reynolds Joe Slater, Town of Ithaca Ray Burger (Dryden Alternate) Chris Kianka; Lectre Development Tim Carpenter: MRB Group Absent Lincoln Morse: City Harbor Rich DePaolo Costa Lambrou: City Harbor Dan Lamb (Dryden Alternate) David Herrick; TG Miller Cynthia called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. She welcomed Scott Reynolds to the board - introductions were made. Cynthia requested to add to the agenda a request by Jose for a grant endorsement. Tee-Ann MOVED to accept the October 16th minutes. Seconded by Dave. Approved 6 – 0 with 1 abstention. Financial Report – Steve Thayer activity through October 31st. Revenues – We have collected all four quarterly payments from the owners. We have collected $303,000.00 in septage service revenue and $3,128,000.00 in total revenue. Debt service will be invoiced next week. He believes we will meet budget by year end - revenues are looking fine. Expenses – We have expended $3,724,000.00 to date and are running at budget. We will be making some budget adjustments: 5120 hourly part time/seasonal is currently $25,000.00 over (we should be able to cover this with the other salary accounts) 5455 insurance overage of $9,000.00 is due to the increased value of the facility, 5477 equipment parts and supplies overage is related to generator rental, 5499 sludge disposal is currently over budget. The employee contribution to Health Insurance should bring it to just about budget. The 5410 Utilities account may need to be adjusted – NYSEG installed a new gas meter approximately 18 months ago – the new meter has been transmitting data incorrectly (by one decimal point). CJ expects we may have to request a payment plan to make up the shortage. The retirement invoice for 2019 will be paid in December to realize a 1% discount. We currently have a deficit of $596,000.00 - we did budget for a deficit of $250,000.00 - we may end up a bit higher. Capital Project 414J – Flow Meters – $280.00 in design activity. Capital Project 422J – Plant Improvements – no activity. MN-SJC-2019-11-20.doc 2 2020 Budget Activity – The Final Budget was adjusted from the proposed budget – Steve increased the 5410 Utilities account to reflect actual costs. Overall his changes resulted in a budget increase of $21,000.00. Negotiations with the Administration Unit will not be completed by December. The budget is posted to the City website. Operations and Engineering Report – CJ Kilgore 1. Plant Maintenance & Operations a. Septage Receiving Rate Increase – CJ is proposing new rates to offset increased disposal and material handling costs. The new rates will go into effect January 1, 2020 and should bring in approximately $25,000.00 to $30,000.00 in additional revenue. He hopes that we will be able to take in out of county grease when planned improvements are complete. Dave MOVED to Adopt the Proposed Septage Receiving Rates. Seconded by Scott R. All in favor 7-0. Passes Unanimously. 2. Facilities Maintenance & Operations a. Monitoring Stations – Chris Kianka offered that the data collection system should be delivered January 2020. They will be back feeding previously collected data to build representative profiles of dry and wet periods. Three are connected - they are utilizing as much of the existing equipment as they can and retrofitting as they go. The base product of the IOT device is a cell phone. Chris explained to the members his decision to change providers. The Digi unit is cost effective, has many inputs and can be powered using a small solar ray (with a battery backup) - it provides velocity, level and totalization - the three main criteria necessary for an I/I study. Tee-Ann asked about accuracy with regard to turbulence. Joe Slater questioned the amount of maintenance necessary – especially turbulence due to roots. CJ confirmed that blockages and turbulence due to roots will cause inaccurate flow readings. Monthly inspections will be necessary - some of the stations will be more problematic than others. There will be alarms both for no signal, high flows and rate of rise – all data is time stamped. Presently there are 15 stations (two are actually pump stations). Consistent verifiable signal is the goal - all data (flow charts, trends, reports) will be available. Chris added that we will be monitoring power usage which will show how efficient the pumps are running – it can be used to indicate pump problems. He mentioned that portable stations can be set up in problem areas to help determine I/I. A couple rainfall gauges/collectors will be necessary as part of the process. CJ feels that once the system is in place the annual maintenance should be relatively low. The batteries should last three years. There will be an internet connection fee. The next step is an I/I study with an engineering firm to determine where the flow is coming from. Tim Carpenter has applied for a $30,000.00 grant – awards should be announced the second week of December. MN-SJC-2019-11-20.doc 3 b. Grit Removal and Misc. Improvements – Bid opening moved to November 26th. 3. Staff Management – an opening has been posted for a wastewater treatment plant operator/ operator trainee. 4. Reporting – Presently all is good. 5. Business, Long Term development – CJ is working with Steve Thayer regarding overages in the 2019 budget. We may need to amend the budget and appropriate from fund balance. It has been a rough year for our ageing equipment. CJ and Scott G are working on a bid proposal for chemical storage tanks. The old tanks need to be demolished and replaced with new ones at an estimated cost of $120,000 to $150,000. The platforms should be repainted to conform to DEC requirements. Keeping the tanks under 10,000 gallons will save the expense of an inspection by a Professional Engineer every 5 years. Scott is looking at wood stave tanks with 6 ml poly liners. The containment area is inside so the tanks will have to be assembled. CJ will be requesting professional services to evaluate our boiler needs. Three of our four boilers are questionable. Our two new high efficiency boilers are high maintenance. Dave Warden offered to take a look as he is a licensed plumber. CJ will have the possibility of using heat from our effluent water evaluated. 6. Energy Production Statistics – provided by CJ. The ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of gas that is wasted. Chris has been working on optimization of our equipment (controlling the dome blowers and the micro turbine sequencing). Presentation/Discussion Items a. City Harbor – DEC Application – Linc Morse distributed their draft Environmental Impact Report for approval to be presented to the DEC as part of the permitting process. Phase Two development involves a community building which will also be tied into the effluent for heating and cooling (future references to City Harbor will include City Harbor, Guthrie and the community building) - there will be one tap to serve all three entities. David Herrick is handling the environmental review – he plans to meet with the DEC in Syracuse to get them up to speed with this innovative technology. CJ will forward the document to the DEC prior to their meeting. Cynthia reminded the members of the agreed upon August resolution which recommended creating a contract that would include an initial startup fee and an annual use fee based on calculated energy used by the project with a two percent annual increase. They have yet to decide on the length/duration of the contract and plan to work with Susan Brock to put a draft agreement together for review. Cynthia added that the municipalities will have to set up legal framework to receive this revenue. We do not anticipate any modifications to our existing DEC plant permit. The final agreement will have legal protections for all parties involved. City Harbor will have a backup system in place in case of power outage. Linc informed the members that the discharge temperature may change by one or two degrees. The three owner municipality’s (attorneys) will have to approve the agreement. MN-SJC-2019-11-20.doc 4 Construction documents should be available for review in the next few months. b. BioChar Working Group – Cynthia, Scott G, Scott R, TeeAnn, and CJ put together a letter recommending that Rockwell Collins proceed with their stand-alone turn-key pilot the purpose of which is to test their technology and for which they will be responsible for all costs pertaining to the pilot project. The Working Group advises to not proceed with the requested demonstration/purchase agreement for the biochar facility, but to wrap solids handling into the next facilities improvement analysis and review process. Cynthia met with Susan Brock who relayed that the New York State law requires that any purchase, lease, professional service agreement that is financially binding upon the parties would require an RFP (competitive procurement process). Cynthia contacted a Tennessee reference – the project was successful during the demonstration phase but when it was transferred to their WWTF staff they were not able to operate the equipment successfully. A second Tennessee reference contacted was unable to obtain an air quality permit. A third Tennessee reference contacted was not satisfied. All three references were disappointed. CJ added that he has been and will continue to research different technologies. David Moved to support sending the letter on behalf of the SJC to Rockwell Collins. Seconded by Tee-Ann. Approved 6 – 0. Passes Unanimously. To: Rockwell Collins Aerospace Thank you for meeting with the Special Joint Committee (SJC) on October 16, 2019. During this meeting you put forward a proposal that the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility (IAWWTF) and Rockwell Collins Aerospace would enter into a 2-phase agreement for the demonstration and purchase/lease of a Thermal Energy Harvesting and Conversion System for the processing of biosolids into biochar and energy. The IAWWTF is committed to accomplishing the goals of reducing the plant’s carbon footprint, creating a Class A biosolid, and reducing overall cost. We believe that the evolving pyrolysis and gasification technology has exciting possibilities for our plant. However, after extensive investigation and discussion of your proposal and the possible adoption of next generation technologies, the Special Joint Committee has decided that the Rockwell Collins proposal cannot be accepted and requests that Rockwell Collins pursue its original proposal of conducting a standalone PILOT project with the IAWWTF and Cornell, with Rockwell Collins being responsible for all costs and permitting associated with the PILOT project. The reasons for not accepting the proposal as tendered are three-fold: 1. Legal procurement requirements issues. After consultation with attorney Susan Brock, it is clear that any purchase, lease, or professional services agreement which is financially binding upon the parties will require compliance with local procurement regulations, policies and guidelines involving an RFP or RFQ. However, a standalone PILOT project which does not encumber the plant in any way is unlikely to require a competitive procurement process. 2. Operational concerns. A discussion with Monica Sowders, the City of Lebanon, TN WWTP Manger, revealed difficulties experienced with the biochar unit at their plant. Similar in size to the IAWWTF, Lebanon processes 3 tons of sludge and 28 tons of wood MN-SJC-2019-11-20.doc 5 chips per day. Lebanon WWTP operators do not have the expertise and attentiveness needed to effectively operate the gasifier so the firm Aries was retained to perform the operations. Aries is not operating the process as designed; the process only functions 10 hours/day, 4 days/week, resulting in wear and tear on the equipment as well as reduced return on investment. Discussions with Tom Leonard, Sevier, TN Solid Waste Manager for the biochar facility in Covington, TN, revealed that this process at this plant also does not work 24/7 as designed. The IAWWTF is a conventional activated sludge plant staffed with licensed operators in typical 8-hr operating day. Considerable time, cost, and effort will need to be invested to maintain a new process. The SJC requires that any biosolids drying system implemented at the plant should fit within the staffing capabilities of the plant and utilize a process that has a demonstrated ability to operate as designed. 3. Permitting Concerns. The discussion with Tom Leonard, the Sevier, TN Solid Waste Manager, also revealed difficulties with obtaining the required emissions permits for their gasifier. Sevier entered into a biochar processing agreement with Aries in 2015 and has yet to receive permit approval from either the State of Tennessee or the EPA. Sevier is currently engaged in legal wrangling over who is financially responsible for obtaining the permit. Incorporation of this new technology at the IAWWTF requires obtaining a Title V permit and associated monitoring equipment, reporting requirements, training and calibration. The SJC staff and operation does not have the capability to obtain the necessary permits, so the IAWWTF will only enter into a PILOT project if Rockwell Collins operates and permits it in a turnkey fashion. As the IAWWTF enters into planning for our next capital improvement project in a few years, we will be examining our biosolids handling process (among other improvements) and will first perform an engineering study to explore multiple scenarios. When we are ready to put forward RFPs to implement the study’s findings, we would welcome Rockwell Collins’ participation. Announcements / Other Business – Bill will schedule a quarterly meeting of six for December or January. David MOVED to adjourn. Seconded by Tee-Ann. All were in favor. Approved 6 - 0. Meeting was adjourned @ 2:55 p.m. The Next Meeting will be December 18th, 2019, 1:00 pm.